The intersection of criminal law and immigration law

By Yolanda Vázquez
I can remember where I was sixteen years ago when the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act went into effect. I was a public defender (PD) in Chicago. I had only been a PD for a little over a year. I was assigned to one of the three domestic violence courtrooms; a courtroom where the majority of the defendants were Spanish speaking non-citizens because I was one of the few Spanish speaking PDs in an office of 625 attorneys. Looking back, it was this moment in my life, that for better or worse, sealed my [...]

By Neil I. Fleischer
As the son of an immigration attorney, I would often accompany my father to various speeches he would give regarding United States immigration law. He begins every speech by “stating that US immigration is the most complex law in our country. At any one time you can deal with three to five government agencies: the Department of Labor, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of State, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the US customs and Border Protection.”
[Click here to see a list of all the symposium contributions.]
He would always [...]

By Maurice Hew, Jr.
It begs the question of judicial integrity and professional responsibility.
The Sixth Amendment guarantees that every accused shall have the right to counsel for his defense. But, “the mere physical presence of…counsel is not enough: it is the marriage of the attorney’s legal knowledge and mature judgment with the defendant’s factual knowledge that makes for an adequate defense.” United States of America v. Smith, 640 F.3d 580 (4th Cir. 2011). Today, counsel’s knowledge must necessarily include the accused’s immigration objectives and must clearly communicate to the [...]

Guest Blogger Tamikka Pate
Recently, the Board of Immigration Appeals held that a lawful permanent resident of the United States may be treated as an applicant for admission, pursuant to INA § 101(a)(13)(C)(iii), in removal proceedings if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proves by clear and convincing evidence that the returning resident engaged in “illegal activity” at a United States port of entry. Matter of Martinez, 25 I&N Dec. 845, 848 (BIA 2012).
Respondent Ignacio Guzman Martinez, a native and citizen of Mexico, has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States [...]

By Mark Noferi, Instructor of Legal
Writing, Brooklyn Law School
First, thanks to César for the
opportunity to speak as part of this Symposium, and for providing a platform to
analyze these important issues in real-time. It’s one of the real benefits that
“new media” vehicles like crimmigration.com provide in
fostering academic analysis. (Another benefit is that I can post this from
Coimbra, Portugal, while attending and speaking at the excellent First
International Crimmigration Control Conference, organized by Juliet Stumpf, Robert Koulish, Maria Joao Guia, and others.)
The Moncrieffe [...]

By Cathy J. Potter, The Law Offices of Cathy J. Potter, PLLC
As a practicing immigration attorney, potential interpretations of
IIRAIRA that would further disadvantage aliens are always a matter of grave
concern. Moncrieffe was convicted
in Georgia of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, under a state
statute that does not differentiate between behavior that would be a drug
trafficking offense under federal law, a felony, as well as behavior that would
be the simple sharing of a small amount of marijuana, a misdemeanor under
federal law.
The Georgia statute, [...]

By Alina Das, Assistant Professor of Clinical Law & Co-Director, Immigrant Rights Clinic, NYU Law School
As
a professor and a lawyer who writes about the “categorical approach” in immigration
law, I worry about how this rule is perceived by federal
courts today. The categorical approach, as it’s been applied over the last 100
years, is quite simple: where Congress has tied immigration penalties to what
an individual has been “convicted of,” it’s the conviction that matters, not an
immigration official’s re-litigation of what the person may or may not have
done. It’s a simple [...]

A single Supreme Court decision can alter the legal
landscape for decades, but immigration cases tend to fly below the radar. To
help crImmigration.com readers stay up-to-date on what’s before the Court,
today crImmigration.com launches its inaugural online symposium on Supreme
Court crImmigration cases.
A group of well-informed, passionate crImmigration experts
have agreed to share their unique insight of Moncrieffe v. Holder, No. 11-702, scheduled for oral arguments tomorrow
(October 10). In Moncrieffe, the
Court is expected to decide whether possession with intent to [...]

February 5: Quoted in article about Indiana death in drunk driving incident allegedly caused by unauthorized migrant [Read article here]

January 31: I'm quoted in San Francisco Chronicle about ICE's policy of arresting people in and near courthouses [Read article here]

January 18: I talked to CityLab about symbolic value of ICE raids on 7-11 stores [Read article here]

January 8: I'm quoted in Governing talking about ICE head's threats to imprison elected officials who support policies limiting cooperation with ICE [Read article here]

January 5: I'm quoted in article about San Antonio Police Department decision to prosecute alleged migrant smuggler under state law rather than hand over to ICE for federal prosecution [Read article here]

January 3: Quoted in article about ICE chief's threats to imprison elected officials who support migrant-friendly policies [Read article here]

2018

December 30: I'm quoted in The Atlantic discussing the special impact crimmigration policies have on black migrants [Read article here]

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The information contained on these pages must not be considered legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. This work by www.crImmigration.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.